"What the judge did today was preserve the integrity of the legislative process," Sen. Quinton Ross, D-Montgomery, said.

Montgomery Circuit Court Judge Charles Price Associated Press

MONTGOMERY, Alabama – Republican legislative leaders are looking to the Alabama Supreme Court to overturn a restraining order and get a controversial school choice bill to Gov. Robert Bentley for his signature.

The fight over the legislation – that gives tax credits to families zoned for “failing” schools to pay tuition elsewhere – quickly morphed into a legal back and forth on Wednesday.

Montgomery Circuit Judge Charles Price, a Democrat, entered a temporary restraining order preventing legislative staff from sending the bill to Bentley. The order stands until Price holds a hearing on March 15 on a lawsuit brought by the Alabama Education Association challenging how the bill was approved.

Within hours Republican legislative leaders hours filed a notice of appeal with the all-Republican Supreme Court asking the court to lift the order.

Republican lawmakers said they believe Price is trampling on the
separation of powers doctrine by getting involved with a bill before it becomes a
law.

“The ruling is a ridiculous unconstitutional overreach by the judicial branch and an insult to the students trapped in failing schools and the parents who want to give their children a better education," Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard said.

The AEA-backed lawsuit alleged lawmakers violated the Open Meetings Act and their own legislative rules on conference committees when they added -- what some called essentially a school voucher program -- to a bill on a different subject.

Price said AEA lawyers had "demonstrated a sufficient likelihood of success" in their claim. He noted that the bill tripled in size in conference committee and had a new name

Price also questioned whether lawmakers violated the Alabama Constitution by changing the bill so much in conference committee.

"What the judge did today was preserve the integrity of the legislative process," Sen. Quinton Ross, D-Montgomery, said after Price ruled.

Republicans have said the conference committee followed the rules and law.

In a motion seeking to dismiss the case, lawyers for legislators said the legislative rules were solely the province of the Legislature.

The appeal will ask the Supreme Court to consider whether Price erred
when he blocked legislative staff from transmitting "a bill that has
passed both houses of the Legislature to the governor for his signature
or veto as those officials are required to do under the Alabama
Constitution."

"This case presents a question of enormous public importance and
statewide impact that is extremely time sensitive," lawyers for the
legislators wrote in the notice of appeal.

The legal maneuvering could develop quickly as Republicans try to get the stay lifted and the bill to Bentley’s desk.

However, it is not expected to end if and when Bentley's signature hits the paper.

James Anderson a lawyer for Lynn Pettway -- the AEA employee who is the plaintiff in the case -- said he will advise his client to continue the challenge.

Hubbard said he is confident.

"I believe the Supreme Court will be the ultimate deciding entity on this, and I believe that we will prevail,” Hubbard said.

Under the bill, parents of children zoned for failing schools would receive an income tax credit equal to 80 percent of the average annual state cost for attendance of a public K-12 student to offset the cost of private school or a transfer to another public school.

The sponsor of the bill estimated that the tax credit would equal about $3,500. He said it could be used by families at a failing school now and also used by families zoned for failing schools but who have their child enrolled in a private school already.

A failing school is described as one in the bottom 10 percent of statewide reading and math scores, has earned three consecutive D's or an F on upcoming school report cards or is designated by the Department of Education as failing.

The bill also gives a tax break for donations to scholarship programs to try and help lower income families bridge the gap between private school tuition and the $3,500 credit.